DILEMMAS: A Response to DHW (Evolution)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Monday, November 10, 2014, 20:34 (3454 days ago) @ dhw
edited by Balance_Maintained, Monday, November 10, 2014, 20:48

DHW: Your computer “intermediaries” have been designed for a clear purpose, which is why the analogy is unhelpful. (See below before you jump for joy).
>-Not for a clear purpose. Computers are not purposed when they are constructed beyond their ability to perform calculations. The hardware itself is platform agnostic, much the same way planets are.-
>DHW: Same again. Each stage of the computer programme is targeted towards a known purpose. My question concerns the purpose behind the “stages” of mass extinctions. You now offer two (for me) unsatisfactory answers.
> -Wrong. See Above. The Hardware does not care what you do with it. The Bios does not care what you do with it. The Operating System does not care what you do with it. They simply serve as layers of interface for preparing the environment so that you can do whatever it is you are planning to do. They do not dictate, they facilitate and provide constraints.-> 1) TONY: What if the end goal was not one lonely planet with a few million species in the middle of a vast and otherwise empty universe? What if the plan was a vast universe teaming with near infinite variety of life? IF the plan was to create just the Earth, and just the (relatively) few species that live on it, then why create the rest of the Universe at all? [...][/i]
> 
>DHW: Good question. This hypothesis depends on there being life elsewhere in the universe, which no-one has (yet) found. Some folk say the universe is “fine tuned” to support life on Earth, which would answer the question but, just like your ET life hypothesis and your computer analogy, fails to explain the need for mass extinctions on Earth.-No, the hypothesis depends on there being the INTENT to create/propagate life elsewhere in the Universe.-
>DHW: Microbial life was and remains essential to all life forms. Bacteria have survived since life began. I'm asking about life forms that were obliterated. Your computer analogy fits those elements essential to life, but doesn't tell me why your God had to create and destroy billions of species in order to come up with humans (David's “purpose”), or in order to fulfil whatever other purpose you think he had in mind.-Because they were programmed to do a certain thing. When that thing was completed, their program was terminated. Their task, their purpose, there very reason for existing no longer existed. They were done, spent, finished. -There is a time for everything,
 and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
 a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
 a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
 a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
 a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
 a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
 a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
 a time for war and a time for peace-
Your basic assertion is that things should be "once made always made", and THAT comes from a rigid refusal to believe that creatures serve a purpose. If you saw that all things had a purpose, then the concept of what happens when something has served it's purpose would not be so alien to you.-
> 
> TONY: This is where evolution fails us. Instead of looking for WHY these things existed, what their purpose was, we try to understand HOW they existed. 
> 
> Why “fails”? The theory of evolution does not seek to impose philosophical explanations on life (that's left to philosophers and would-be philosophers), but to understand how life has developed from the first few comparatively simple forms to the complexities we have today. So please tell us WHY you think mass extinctions were necessary, and above all what they were necessary for. In other words, what do you think was your God's purpose in creating life, and why does this depend on the creation and extinction of billions of species?
> -I've already told you, but you aren't listening. They were created to prepare the way for future developments. To 'set up the environmental variables'. That was their purpose. Once that task was complete, they were no longer necessary. Further more, even you can not seriously be claiming the extinction of "billions of species". There are only an estimated 8.7 million species alive today. Certainly you do not think that the number of extinct species are several orders of magnitude greater than those currently in existence!? That would do more to damn Darwin than I ever could!

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.